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News > Latin America

Ranchers, Drug Traffickers Threaten Guatemala Forest Reserve

  • A truck hauls sustainably produced lumber on April 25, 2017, in San Andres, a town near the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala.

    A truck hauls sustainably produced lumber on April 25, 2017, in San Andres, a town near the Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala. | Photo: EFE

Published 18 June 2017
Opinion

The Maya Biosphere Reserve contains the largest forest in Mesoamerica, covering 8,341 square miles.

The Maya Biosphere Reserve in northern Guatemala is threatened not just by forest fires and climate change, but by encroachment from ranchers and drug traffickers, community leaders told reporters.

The reserve is under siege from "agricultural activities and ranching, and drug trafficking," as well as "intentionally set fires and the possible expansion of an archaeological park in the so-called Mirador basin," Jorge Emilio Soza, a resident of San Andres and one of the founders of the Integral Forest Association, known as Afisap, said.

Marcedonio Cortave, a conservationist and agronomist who has helped protect the Maya Biosphere Reserve for decades, told reporters who recently toured the area that there were numerous threats to the environmentally sensitive region.

"A lot of influence is being exerted by people who want to change the land use and turn it into pastures for cattle, and there are even associated interests from 'narco-ranchers,' a scheme under which they make it seem that the profits are coming from cattle, but in reality they are sometimes generated by illegal activities," Cortave said.

A report published last week said that nearly 8,000 fires had been identified in just the first five months of this year, leading to the destruction of more than nearly 5,000 acres of land.

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